Why Jumping On The Newest Platforms Isn’t Always Wise

There’s a lot of change constantly happening. This can be a problem too though. It can be tempting to say, “Well, look we’ve got to get on the next thing. We’ve got to get on all the new things.” Shiny object. That can be bad. I think it’s bad when there are people out there who are saying, “You need to be on Snapchat right now.” Some of the people saying that have stock in Snapchat, and they’re not telling you that. That’s not very responsible. There’s maybe one case study of people making any kind of profit with Snapchat. Some of the advertisers I’ve talked about who are doing … Snapchat advertising is not open to everyone. Those who have been on it, some of them say it’s not worth doing.

Part of the problem with going with super new stuff is it’s not proven yet. I believe there’s being a late adopter, there’s being an early adopter and then there’s prudently early. That’s what I believe in. I am a little skeptical and a little slow with certain things. By slow I mean I was doing Facebook marketing in 2011, not in 2009, not in 2010. I’m like a year or 2 behind because I want to make sure that it can be profitable for my clients. I’m not going to recommend Snapchat marketing for my clients right now in 2016 because it’s not there yet. It’s not a wise or prudent use of your money, but Facebook is and Google still is for certain things, although Google has become so competitive that you wouldn’t spend as much money with them now as you would back in 2005.

It’s Just Not Responsible

You have to be smart about which platforms you use based on how mature they are and who is on them, is your customer on there? Is there a proven system yet for profiting on them, which is why Google and Facebook are the biggest ones right now. LinkedIn, there are a lot of problems. If you don’t spend more than $30,000 a month and you can’t get the big enhanced, personalized ads, their self-serve ads are not that effective. Twitter, a little bit of effectiveness, but a lot of work for a little bit of return. Spending a lot of time with Google and Facebook are going to be your biggest, best bets.

When you hear about Snapchat or you hear about Blab … Suddenly people jump on Blab. They’re like, “This is the next big thing.” I’m like, “How do you know? You don’t really know that yet. There’s nobody on there.” They get mad at me. They’re like, “How can you be a thought leader and not embrace every new thing?” I’m like, “Because I care about profits and ROI. What happens to Blab? They change direction and then Facebook puts out some features that are going to make Blab completely irrelevant. When Facebook has 2-person, live video, Blab is dead. All those people that got on Blab and said, “Blab is the next big thing. It’s amazing,” were wrong because they didn’t really know that. They just guessed it was going to be. That’s not responsible. That’s not responsible in my opinion.

Invest In Platforms That Are Mature

My job, I think as a thought leader, is to tell you what works really well now and how you do that. What’s coming down the pike, I can tell you this may or may not turn out, but why would you spend all that time and money being an early pioneer, getting shot in the back with arrows or in the front, whatever, getting shot in the head? I don’t know where you’re going to get shot with arrows. Why would you do that? Let some of these people who want to try Blab, who want to try Ello … People thought Ello was going to be a Facebook killer. There are a lot of people out there who want to jump on the latest new thing. They don’t know what they’re talking about.

If you want to make money and you want to profit, you want to spend your time and your money wisely, you need to make sure that there are case studies of companies making money and doing well with that network. Invest in platforms that are mature. Don’t invest in premature possibilities. Don’t gamble on that. Invest in mature realities. Don’t gamble on premature possibilities.